Minium: Marty Bradley, who created ODU's athletic training program, among five inducted into sports hall of fame tonight
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – When Marty Bradley came to Old Dominion in 1975, the University was largely a commuter school with a small but growing athletic program. There was no Chartway Arena. It would be more than three more decades before ODU began playing football.
ODU had just won a Division II national men’s basketball title, and other sports, such as baseball, were nationally prominent on the so-called small college level.
Women’s basketball would soon begin a run that would lead to two national titles. And the ODU men’s basketball program would in 1976-77 move to Division I and upset Virginia and Georgetown on the road.
But when Bradley arrived on campus, ODU didn’t have an athletic trainer – just a part-time, unpaid graduate student. And training facilities hardly existed.
Bradley was ODU’s first full-time athletic trainer and when he got here, he realized very quickly how far the University was behind the times.
“The athletic training room was more of a coffee break place,” he said. “The first time I walked in there were coaches sitting around a table drinking coffee.
“Big-time schools already had training staffs. Other schools were figuring out that they needed athletic trainers, how valuable they could be for the student-athletes.”
Bradley gradually built a staff of graduate students that he could trust to work with each team. While they received academic credit for their work, they weren’t paid.
Over his 43 years at ODU, Bradley created an athletic training program that became the envy of many of ODU’s rivals. He helped ODU found a graduate athletic training program that is one of the best in the nation.
Scott Johnson, who worked with Bradley for 30 years and succeeded him, now oversees a staff of 11 full-time athletic trainers who care for 450 ODU student-athletes in five athletic training rooms all over campus.
“Sometimes, I don’t think people here realize how lucky they were to have Marty build what he built,” Johnson said. “What we have now, the way he built it, it was all his vision.
“I stayed here so long to work next to Marty. I learned so much from him. He showed so much care and compassion for the athletes.
“He treated every athlete he worked with like they were his own kids. Everything he did, he did for the student athletes.”
ODU acknowledged how lucky they were earlier this year when they announced Bradley, who is 74, is to be inducted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame.
He will join one of the strongest hall of fame classes ODU has ever inducted tonight at the Jeff and Billye Chernitzer Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony at Chartway Arena. Cocktail hour begins at 6, with dinner and induction to follow at 7.
The other four inductees:
Trey Freeman, the former men’s basketball star who is best remembered for the last-second 30-foot jump shot at Chartway Arena against Murray State that sent the Monarchs to the Final Four of the 2015 National Invitation Tournament. He was twice an All-Conference USA first-team selection and scored 1,429 points in two seasons at ODU. His 42 points in a Conference USA Tournament game against Western Kentucky set the tournament record.
CLICK FOR VIDEO OF TREY FREEMAN MIRACLE SHOT AGAINST MURRAY STATE
Christy Longacre, a field hockey player from 2010 through 2013 who was a two-time All-American and was both the Colonial Athletic Association and Big East Defensive Player of the Year. She was twice on the CAA all-tournament team and once on the Big East all-tournament team. ODU went to four NCAA Tournaments and once advanced to the Final Four semifinals during her time in Norfolk.
Jonathan Plisco played on ODU’s first football team in 2009 and was a three-time All-American. He still holds the Football Championship Subdivision record with a career punting average of 45.1 yards. He averaged 46.2 yards in 2011 and played on two FCS NCAA Playoff teams. ODU was 38-10 in his four years with the Monarchs.
Evan Newton was a star goalkeeper for the Monarchs and was a second-team All-American as a senior who had six shutouts and a 1.07 goals-against average. He leads ODU with 254 career saves and 36 shutouts. In 2010, helped ODU beat defending national champion Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. An MLS first-round pick who played 12 seasons in the NASL and United Soccer Championship League.
Bradley, a Connecticut native, attended Southern Illinois University where he walked on to the freshman basketball team (freshmen were then ineligible to play varsity basketball) and earned a scholarship as a sophomore. He then served two years as a graduate student athletic trainer.
He had an offer while at SIU to become a head high school basketball coach, but decided instead that he would rather help student-athletes in another way.
He then went to the University of Arizona where he earned a graduate degree in athletic training. He had a chance to go to Lehigh to become the head trainer, but decided ODU was more of a challenge. Lehigh had football and an established medical training staff.
Bradley wanted to come somewhere he could make a difference.
He was hired by then Director of Athletics Jim Jarrett. “Dr. Jarrett allowed me to do what I thought was needed to develop the athletic training program,” he said.
He was nearing retirement when ODU decided to begin playing football.
His wife, Johanna, convinced him to stay on at ODU to work with the football team, something he had always wanted to do. Their children, Joshua, Jordan and Sarah, were all grown up.
“It was a lot of fun working with the football team,” he said. “I don’t regret doing that at all. But it was a lot of work. Seven days a week.”
And sometimes it could be dangerous. In fact, Bradley injured himself several times.
Bradley would run once every day, usually just before lunch, Johnson said. “One day he came back from a run and his face was bloody,” Johnson said. “He said he tried to duck under a street sign and didn’t duck enough.”
He once injured his knee running onto the football field to help a player. In an NCAA football playoff game against Norfolk State, a Spartan being tackled out of bounds accidentally kicked Bradley in the face. When Bradley tried to help the player up, he then accidentally got head-butted.
“Marty didn’t let that stop him,” Johnson said. “He just kept on working.”
Bradley finally retired in 2018, but remains close to ODU. He lives in Larchmont, just blocks away from campus and works out at the ODU Student Recreation Center nearly every day.
He said he was shocked when he got the call from Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s, director of athletics, informing him that he would be inducted into the hall of fame.
“It’s very humbling,” he said. “And I think it’s gratifying to know you’re being appreciated for what you did for many years at ago.”
Dr. Selig said Bradley is indeed appreciated.
“Marty is most deserving of this recognition,” Dr. Selig said. “Few within the athletic training profession can match his longevity and professional service to literally thousands of student athletes.
“If there was a win total for Marty Bradley, as there is for head coaches, he would be among the all-time leaders at ODU in wins because of his expertise in so quickly and efficiently restoring the health in our student athletes.”
Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram